What do you do with that oil after the Thanksgiving turkey's been fried? Jefferson County will recycle it

The Madison City Fire Department held a demonstration in 2011 to advise the public of the dangers presented when attempting to fry a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. Fire fighter Brandon Burgess uses a 10 foot pike pole to drop a partially frozen turkey into the deep fryer. (FILE -- The Huntsville Times/ Michael Mercier)

JEFFERSON
COUNTY, Alabama -- Once Thanksgiving dinner is over, the leftovers go in the
fridge and the dishes go in the sink. But if you used a deep fryer to cook your
bird, Jefferson County doesn't want you to put that oil down the drain.

Used cooking
oil can cause clogs and backups both in your home and in the sewer system, and those
can be expensive. The county is providing more than a dozen places to take
grease where it won't do any harm.

"Thanksgiving
is the start of the holiday season that often includes meals and gatherings
with family and friends," County Manager Tony Petelos said in a news release. "Jefferson
County's household cooking oil and grease recycling program provides a
convenient way for residents to keep oil and grease out of their kitchen sink
drains and out of the sanitary sewer system."

It's free to
drop off oil at the county's 19 recycling stations, and the grease can be
repurposed into pet and livestock feeds, industrial lubricants and fuel,
according to the release.

You can pick
up a jug at any of the stations and pour the cooled grease into it, then drop
it off. Oil can also be taken in your own container as long as it has a sealed
lid and is not glass.

The stations
will not accept motor oil or fuel, just edible cooking oil or grease.

While the
county is worried about clogs in homes and in its 3,000 miles of sewers, there
are also some concerns about dumping grease on the ground outside. It can attract
snakes, rats and other animals and damage water quality when it runs off into
streams.

For more
information, contact the county's Environmental Services Department at (205)
238-3876.